The Sleepover

6/10

This family film on Netflix is about siblings Clancy (played by Sadie Stanley) and Kevin (Maxwell Simkins) who find out that their mom (the Watchmen movie/Childrens Hospital's Malin Akerman) is an ex-thief who's been kidnapped along with their dad (Childrens Hospital's Ken Marino) and forced to do one last job. The children end up pursuing them with their friends. So basically, it's kind of the setup to Spy Kids 4-D with the execution of Adventures in Babysitting. (Just not as fantastic as the former and played safer than the latter.) I found this to be alright.

This is one of those films that doesn't do enough to separate itself from the pack. You can predict where a lot of things are going and the children have some really basic, worn-out personal storylines. The first act is particularly average cause you don't see anything new just the traditional children's movie family issues.

The Sleepover is generally entertaining, there are several good moments and lines throughout, but the quality isn't consistent. The strength in this is more in the little moments than the general storyline. 

I give the movie credit for not just predictably being about just the children's adventure. The parents' storyline is given just as much focus. However, it bugs me that the movie spends way too much time focusing on the dad being upset with his wife's secret and jealous of her ex-partner (Joe Manganiello). They never really convince you why the couple married or get you root for their relationship. I particularly think that Marino (who's a versatile actor and really should be in more stuff) was given a bad break as he does a good job of playing the character as he's supposed to be played but just isn't given the proper dialogue to work with.

The cast's good. The standout is probably Simkins as he does a great job of nailing the odd goofball. His character demanded the most stuff, and he was game for all of it. Though it's a small role, Erik Griffin lights up each scene as the mom's witness protection handler.

If the crime portion of this story got your hopes up: no, there isn't a lot of action. The budget for this appeared to be pretty low.

I know I've been hard on this film, but it does have it's charm. As something to park your kids in front of, I think they'd like it. It's just as an adult viewer there is nothing about this to make it must-see viewing.